Date: Apr-09

Sea Technology
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Pressure-Tolerant Lithium Polymer Batteries
A reliable, swappable high energy density battery for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles and
Oceanographic Equipment
By Dr. Richard Wilson, Steve A. Somlyody, Bluefin Robotics Cambridge MA

Introduction
Lithium battery technology powers many of the
everyday electronic devices owned by millions,
including mobile phones, laptops and some hybrid
cars. As demonstrated through this consumer
market, lithium-ion is a well established, proven
chemistry that, when managed properly, provides
reliable high-density energy. For over a decade
Bluefin Robotics has leveraged COTS (commercial
off-the-shelf) lithium-based cells to design, build
and deliver hundreds of pressure tolerant lithium
batteries. Today, Bluefins drop-and-play,
rechargeable batteries power several underwater
applications including Bluefins line of
commercial, scientific and military autonomous
underwater vehicles (AUVs) and a number of OEM
(original equipment manufacturer) products. The
battery technology has successfully operated in
shallow and deep water applications as a reliable,
rechargeable energy source requiring minimal
maintenance throughout its service life.

Figure 1. Bluefin 1.5 kWh Battery Pack
Underwater Battery Challenges
Prior to 2000 Bluefin Robotics used silver-zinc
batteries enclosed in pressure vessels to power its
AUVs. Though state of the practice at that time,
the technology had significant inherent
disadvantages. For instance, these batteries required
special care and attention, they off gassed, burped
electrolyte over circuit cards, required
refrigeration to maximize their cycle life, and
required pressure vessels to be opened for each
charge. This led to maintenance and logistical
complications. In 1998, Bluefin embarked on a
path to design and build a pressure tolerant
battery system that would reduce the number and
magnitude of disadvantages while simultaneously
maximizing energy density. Central to advancing
Bluefins battery goal was the lithium polymer
(li-poly) battery chemistry that became widely
available in the 1990s. This battery technology is
essentially a flat-pack sandwich of an anode, a
cathode and a gel-like electrolyte, which is able
to withstand high hydrostatic pressure. While the
path of developing pressure-tolerant li-poly
batteries would indeed have challenges,
significant advantages were expected in terms of
reliability, performance, logistics, and safety if
those challenges could be overcome.
In the infancy of the development, the focus of
the technology effort was on the single problem
of pressure tolerance. However, a plethora of
technical challenges arose through each
prototype. These have been largely overcome
through refinement and testing, enabling the
ubiquitous use of these batteries.
High energy density is the driving goal for
underwater battery systems. Battery
manufacturers specify the energy density of their
cells but for fair comparison of disparate systems
in the marine environment, ocean engineers often
use a slightly different metric and that is the
energy density per neutrally buoyant kilogram.
Every watt hour of energy stored on a free-
flooded AUV increases mass and that mass
requires an appropriate amount of flotation in
order to make the vehicle as a whole near
neutrally buoyant. Thus with the appropriate
metric, one can measure the complete cost of a
battery solution when all connectors, cables,

Date: Apr-09
Sea Technology
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electronics, pressure vessels and foam flotation are
considered. Furthermore, flotation also requires
volume and every liter of flotation is a liter
occupied that cannot be used by a sensor or critical
vehicle subsystem. Using this metric, it can be
determined that the pressure tolerant battery
approach yields the highest energy density solution
while preserving the ability to remove and replace
the battery without breaking waterproof seals.
While the raw li-poly pouch cells have an energy
density of 200 watt-hours per kilogram
(unpackaged in air), the combined mass of
flotation, casing, connectors and electronics brings
the neutrally buoyant energy density down to
between 80 and 120 watt-hours per kilogram
depending on depth (this figure is driven by foam
density).
For operation in the marine environment, battery
components such as lithium cells, electronics,
enclosures, and connectors must survive harsh
conditions through numerous dives, charge cycles
and on-deck conditions. Lithium batteries for
consumer products like laptops are manufactured in
the millions; however they are not exposed to
saltwater, ocean pressure to 10,000 pounds per
square inch gauge and temperatures at or below
freezing simultaneously. As a result, Bluefin
imposes additional screening tests on each
incoming cell to ensure the robustness required to
survive the added environmental stresses. Testing
extends to other steps of the manufacturing process
as well. To withstand the repeated pressure cycles,
the battery packaging, connectors, materials, cables
and electronics all have to be selected, designed and
tested to protect against degradation or failure. For
instance, during manufacture, battery components
and cells must pass capacity and other electrical
tests while under pressure to simulate the target
operating environment.
Consider the commercial requirements for an
underwater battery. For a typical survey AUV
every minute that the vehicle spends in non-survey
activities increases the cost of the survey - this
includes preparation for a dive, time spent on the
descent and ascent, recovery and on-deck
turnaround for the next mission. Increasing the
operational tempo requires a battery solution that is
quickly replaceable and reliable.

Figure 2. The commercial advantage of Bluefins
swappable batteries is that a freshly charged set can
be installed in minutes.
Technical Advantages
The technical challenges faced in designing a
pressure tolerant battery are significant, so the
only reason to pursue this approach is if the
advantages are numerous and they are.
From a technical perspective, the pressure
tolerant battery makes efficient use of
displacement to offset the battery mass, and the
freedom to arbitrarily design a space envelope
allows designers to efficiently package flotation
foam into spaces where traditional cylindrical or
spherical pressure vessels cannot reside. The
outcome of this efficient packaging is the ability
to create deep rated AUVs that are small and
easy to handle yet retain excellent range
performance. The pressure tolerant approach
provides the highest energy density while also
reducing the cost impact associated with using
large pressure vessels.
The commercial advantage of a swappable
battery is that a freshly charged set of batteries

Date: Apr-09
Sea Technology
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can be installed in minutes, so while the vehicle is
running the next survey a new set of batteries are
charged and previously collected data is evaluated.
A fully pressure tolerant battery is the key to
quickly and reliably swapping batteries. This is
because there are no pressure boundaries to breach,
no seals to be serviced or replaced and each battery
can be easily removed and hand carried across a
moving deck to a charge station. Furthermore, the
use of drop and play blind mate-able connectors
reduces the chance of damage to pigtails and wiring
that is seen over the normal course of operations.
In order to achieve the maximum energy density
from a battery section using a pressure vessel, the
pressure vessel must be quite large to accommodate
all of the batteries used on the vehicle; this means
that the battery is heavy and difficult to handle. In
the case of the pressure tolerant battery, the
packaging efficiency is higher and so the weight
penalty of splitting the energy section into smaller
chunks individual batteries is lower.
Consequently, as the batteries can now be smaller
and lighter, they can be handled, packaged and
shipped more easily than a monolithic section.
Logistics are simplified across the board.
From a safety perspective, hazards will always exist
when storing energy. However, the failure of a
pressure tolerant battery is likely to produce a more
benign result versus the failure of a battery in a
pressure vessel, because the adjacent seawater
surrounding the individual batteries provides a very
efficient heat sink, thereby reducing the risk of
propagation. Furthermore, if a failure in a battery
should occur on deck, risk from explosion or
bursting of a pressure vessel from internal pressure
built up in the vessel is negated.
The Bluefin Approach
Bluefin has employed two different approaches to
building pressure tolerant batteries, both of which
use a common technology. One approach is a fully
encapsulated battery of which the 3.5 kilowatt-hour
form-factor received the US Navy 9310 safety
testing and approval for the use on the Battlespace
Preparation AUV (BPAUV). The other is a hybrid
battery which will be the focus of this article.
The basic building block of any battery is the
cell. Leveraging the commercially available,
machine made li-poly cells used in consumer
electronics, Bluefin uses a robustly manufactured
pouch cell. After being tested, these cells are
molded into bricks. The number and connection
of the bricks dictate both the battery voltage and
capacity depending on the electrical series or
parallel arrangement. Once assembled, the bricks
are tested. A group of bricks are then placed in a
housing and restrained, the box is filled with oil
and the entire volume is pressure compensated
with a simple built-in bladder. Because the
exterior of the battery will be directly immersed
in the ocean, materials are chosen for corrosion
resistance, with a plastic main body and an
anodized aluminum plate for a lid. This plate is
both a heat sink and mount for the drop-and-
play blind mate-able connectors and battery
electronics control board.

Figure 3. The 1.5 kWh battery is a compact, efficient
design for deep-sea use.
Lithium-based rechargeable cells provide
excellent energy density, long lifetime and high
cycle life when used correctly, but can be
permanently damaged when over discharged and
present a fire risk when overcharged or over-
heated. The embedded electronics system in
Bluefin batteries controls and monitors the pack
cell voltages, temperature and current and
prevents the user from unintentionally damaging
the pack. Cell balancing is the method used to
maintain the battery at the highest possible
capacity and addresses the tendency of cells
connected in series to not perfectly match one

Date: Apr-09
Sea Technology
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another in voltage over time. All of these
parameters and controls are transmitted via a multi-
drop serial interface so that multiple batteries can
simultaneously be used in parallel.
Beyond AUVs: Other
Applications
Many of the design advantages of Bluefins hybrid
battery are applicable to non-AUV platforms.
Equipment such as some ROVs and Marine
instrumentation, require reliable, easy-to-operate
power systems. Current applications use the
standard Bluefin 1.5 kilowatt-hour hybrid battery or
custom versions with minor internal modifications
to change output voltage. For instance, WET Labs,
a marine instrumentation manufacturer in Seattle,
Washington, incorporates the 1.5 kilowatt-hour
pack into their Autonomous Moored Profiler, which
can be deployed for over three months at a time.
Using common core elements of the hybrid battery
design, Bluefin has also developed a large scale
lithium battery platform to address applications
requiring proven technology at a scale of hundreds
of kilowatt hours of energy and a higher bus
voltage. The battery packs flexible architecture can
be scaled up or down to meet requirements of just
about any application.
Conclusion
For over a decade, Bluefin Robotics has developed
lithium polymer battery technology for underwater
operation through innovative and robust integration
of COTS products, and has refined the product
through extensive testing and field operation.
Whether providing power as a simple pluggable
energy pack or integrated as building blocks of a
larger system, the technology has matured to a
point where AUVs are running survey missions
continuously while new, non-AUV applications
are emerging. Regardless of what the packs
power, they provide a reliable, ease-to-use high-
density energy solution for the marine market.
Dr. Richard Wilson is the Technical Director -
Power and Electrical Systems at
Bluefin Robotics. He has degrees in
Electrical Engineering and Electro-
Mechanical engineering and has
developed robust electronic systems
for harsh environments including
on-piston engine monitoring, long
duration benthic robots and Autonomous
Underwater Vehicles.
Steve A. Somlyody is Senior Design Engineer
and Project Manager at Bluefin
Robotics, specializing in batteries
and power systems. He has over 20
years experience developing
products to handle the harsh
environments of industrial and
military applications and has
directed programs to further
improve product quality and design for
manufacture.
Bluefin Robotics manufactures and develops
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and
subsystems. Founded in 1997, the Company has
grown to become a world leader in AUV products
designed for military, commercial,
oceanographic, and other applications. Bluefin
Robotics is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the
Battelle Memorial Institute. Contact Bluefin
Robotics Corporation at
info@bluefinrobotics.com or visit
www.bluefinrobotics.com.